I'm trying to write simple app to be location aware.
The thing is I wrote location requests to be received directly in activity, but that brings up the problem, because I wanna get the results even if the activity is in background. So I know that I need to have foreground service running to be able to do any processing whenever my activity is in background.
I need this service to be started from this activity (like button click) and be then visible across activities and when my app goes into background.
So my idea is as follows.
Start the service from activity on button press. I guess this service should be sticky. And then I should bind to this service from that activity if I want to receive location data. When app goes into background I should then promote that service into foreground service so my app stays in background and Oreo restrictions don't apply.
Is my thought process fine? Or are there better ways to achieve my requirements?Like a broadcast receiver maybe.
Thanks in advance.
Related
So I'm creating app that includes ForegoundService with is sending some data to the backend.
I've already made service part. In activity i have two buttons, like start and stop.
Pushing start is starting the service and pushing stop needs to stop him. The problem is that when I reopen the app (from icon, or from notification) the service reference is null and I can't stop service working.
Is it possible to reopen that exact activity event when app was already closed?
I was thinking about making service singleton, but i wish there is some proper way to do this.
I'm developing a player app.
For this reason, it uses a foreground service to handle the playback.
Until recently the service was bound to my activities.
This is not the case anymore.
Since then, some specific devices (mostly Pixel 1/2/3) have been killing my app 1 minute after the screen has been turned off
The service is a foreground service not bound to anything.
Why would the device kill it?
As soon as the app is excluded from the device-optimized apps list the issue is solved
I'm not providing code, because I'm just trying to understand if this situation makes sense and if so what should I do to prevent this
BTW the app is using a receiver to act on Screen_ON/OFF messages. That's how I can see in the logs that the player service onDestroy() method gets killed exactly 1 minute after the screen has been turned off
what should I do to prevent this?
The key point here to keep the service alive is as said in official documentation :
While an app is in the foreground, it can create and run both
foreground and background services freely.
so, we can conclude that keeping the work in foreground and visible to the user has very minimal chances of being killed. And to do so we need to know that how android gets the idea that this process is in foreground ?
Here are the criteria's at which a process is said to be in foreground:
It has a visible activity, whether the activity is started or
paused.
It has a foreground service.
Another foreground app is connected to the app, either by binding to
one of its services or by making use of one of its content
providers. For example, the app is in the foreground if another app
binds to its:
-IME Wallpaper service
-Notification listener
-Voice or text service
If none of those conditions is true, the app is considered to be in
the background.
If none of the above criteria is fulfilled by your app process then thats the reason of your service being killed.
You can read more on this topic here :
Foreground service being killed by Android
I am working on a app that during boot time starts an activity that logs in to my server (needs an activity to log in through facebook) using a service (initiated with startService). This service establishes XMPP listeners and does nothing after that, just waits for connection. I want this service to run all the time the device is up.
The problem is that the activity stops after a while and my service is also stopped. The service returns START_STICKY so I was expecting it to hang around. Also the service doesn't do anything except wait for connection.
The activity has the properties:
android:excludeFromRecents="true"
android:noHistory="true"
android:launchMode="singleInstance"
so that it does not show up in the task list (when user long presses the home button).
The activity is stopped when the user long presses the home button and the service also ends. I am thinking its possible that the application exited, that's why the service also ends. I could not find any way to keep the activity from not stopping. Maybe its stopping because of the above properties.
So what can I do to keep the service running all the time. How can I keep the application from being removed. I read somewhere that if I keep a while loop running in the service then START_STICKY can keep the service around??
I can use AlarmManager to start the service but I don't want it to stop easily and then have to restart it every time.
I don't want to run a foreground service. I can not run the service in a different process since I am using existing code that does not do IPC. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
There are two things to keep running a service indefinitely; create the service using startService() and return START_STICKY from onStartCommand(). You seem to be doing this both. With these two steps, the service may be shut down by the system but it should restart almost immediately.
The only suggestion I have is to create a separate thread in the service. This is because by default, started services run in the application main thread. If the service is constantly doing certain task, it may block the main thread and kill the application. Google doc has an example of implementing this:
http://developer.android.com/guide/components/services.html#ExtendingService
How do I keep a service running, when all activities of an application are viewable. and close the service only when I leave the app?
Is there a way to start a service in one activity of an app and stop that same service in another activity of that same application?
I don`t want that service to continue running when the user leaves the application.
There is really no concept of 'application' and leaving it. What happens if open a link from one of your activities, launch the browser to view it, then come back via the back button? Did you really leave the app?
What does your service do? Do activities bind to it? If so, it will be automatically shut down after the last client unbinds. If not, it should shut itself when it has finished doing it's work (Cf. IntentService). If it doesn't fit either of those patterns, maybe you don't need a service at all, just some background thread(s)?
Edit (based on comments below):
For a service running a media player, the usual way is to have an ongoing notification for the service that lets the user bring up an activity to control the service. Or have buttons on the notification in JB to achieve something similar. Additionally, if you make the service a foreground one, that will give it higher priority and it is less likely to be killed if resources are low.
I am creating an application which sends the location information to the server. But when the back or home button is clicked the application is stopped. Is there a way to make the application run continuously in background and sends data to the server ?
Use a background Service. Services are application components which can run in the background without user interaction. A good tutorial on Service in android is from this.
You probably want to start the service on launch of your Activity, or you can register for system broadcasts like BOOT_COMPLETE to keep your service running from boot up.
However, keeping your service running throughout without user knowledge is a bad idea, and drains battery also. You probably want to wake up the service using AlarmManager, do processing, schedule next restart, and exit.
You need to run a Service class for your own application.
Refer docs for more information.